SketchUp 2017 Pro Reference manuals

SketchUp Pro
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I have been using SketchUp for 10 years but my skill set is limited since I am forced to use AutoCad for most of my digital work. Trying to get traction on SU for some upcoming projects and cannot find any printed reference manuals for SU Pro 2017 like I have had for version 8 titled SketchUp Hands On Basic Exercises and a second volume called Advanced Exercises. Are these type references available for SU 2017 and if so where?

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The basics of 3D modelling have hardly changed since v8 in SU itself, so the original printed manual will still be about 80-90% the same (or maybe a little less).

The principal changes I can recall are

  • the addition of a native Rotated Rectangle tool in SU 2016 I think it was, with its behaviour modified slightly in SU 2017
  • substantial improvements in inferencing behaviour in the last couple of versions
  • improvements to the Offset tool, which now offsets circles and arcs to concentric circles and arcs, rather than edges (or was it even Curves?)
  • numerous bug fixes to reduce crashes
  • the change (on Windows only) to the standard MS collapsible trays instead of separate windows for information panels like Entity Info, Layers, Outliner, Components, Materials and so on
  • much better, but still not complete, support for hi-res displays
  • changes to the built in Ruby version from v1.8 in SU v8, first to v2.0 in 2014, which broke some earlier plugins, then v2.2 in 2017 (or thereabouts)
  • wholesale revision of the graphics pipeline in SU 2017, which has caused much grief for users of Windows 10, as support for the (now required, not optional) OpenGL 3.0 graphics on Intel chips particularly, is incomplete, and broken by several Win 10 updates
  • loss of access to Google-sourced terrain, and satellite images, after Google withdrew its five year agreement to continue to supply it to Trimble. The replacement from Digital Globe has limited or no coverage about 60° latitude, and worse image quality in other places (see the long thread on this forum for users’ experiences - I don’t use it).

There have been bigger improvements in Layout, I understand, but I don’t use it much, so can’t comment.

Others may have more complete recollections, or access to past release notes.

2 Likes
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John,

Thanks for the quick response to my forum post. It appears my investment in the two printed manuals for v8 was not in vain. As a 67 year old “Geezer” landscape architect learning all this software is a challenge.

Was considering an upgrade of my workstation to a larger SSD boot drive and to Windows 10 Pro 64 bit. Not sure the Win 10 upgrade is wise based on your comment I highlighted below.

Thanks again for you info and guidance.

D

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If you aren’t reliant on a built in Intel graphics chip, you will probably be OK with Win10… nVidia cards from the GTX10xx series seem to work well, as do some but not all Radeon cards.

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here.

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Sketch3d_de,

Thank you for the information. Visited the 3DVinci site earlier but didn’t come across what you directed me to with your “here” link.

Again thanks

D

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